one_long_mission | [Open] I have too many Gaara mused OTL

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[Open] I have too many Gaara mused OTL

In the blink of an eye, from one moment to the next, she was somewhere else. The redhead blinked in mild surprise and stared around at her surroundings. This...didn't look like Kumo. She'd been there a moment ago, speaking with the Raikage about possibly reworking some of their treaties, and now...

She appeared to be standing on the outskirts of a village that she didn't recognize; from the numerous pinpricks of strong, trained chakras, she suspected it was a shinobi village of some sort. That was...not a bad thing, she decided. And so Sabaku no Gaara began walking toward the village, long red curls lifting briefly away from her neck in the stray breeze.

If this is genjutsu, it is unlike anything I have seen before, she mused as she walked, easily weaving between others visiting the markets and wandering. The gourd strapped to her back earned her a few surprised looks, but she ignored them in favor of searching for someone who was likely to be a shinobi; civilians rarely had the answers she required.

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She knew she was being watched, of course; there were many eyes directed her way. She was used to being stared at for one reason or another, be it the unusual red hair, the scar on her forehead, or the gourd. So for that, Gaara was unconcerned. What did almost immediately catch her attention, however, was the sudden spike of harming intent, followed by an immediate reaction from her sand.

Predictably, the civilians in the area scattered; she turned, immediately pinpointing the chakra, and leaped onto the nearest rooftop. Strategically, it was a bad idea to let this opponent have the high ground. She folded her arms over her breasts and gazed coolly at the other woman, sand spilling from the gourd to swirl at her feet. She didn't recognize the other at first, but the chakra was vaguely familiar. Pale green eyes, rimmed in heavy rings and framed by dark eyelashes, narrowed.

If she disregarded the female frame and the strange hairstyle, the other would look eerily similar to the eldest of her two brothers. "...Tamaki?" she asked, hesitantly.

"Name's Temari, but I'm guessing you're Gaara. No way to be anyone else, girl or not," the blonde said with a huffy sigh.

"...Temari...?" Now that the other woman wasn't hell-bent on attacking her, Gaara was able to reign in the sand so that she could really look at Temari. Mint green eyes widened. "...you really are the image of my brother - aside from the curves." Apparently, Sabaku women just had killer curves; it helped that this particular Gaara had been raised by a father who loved his children.

But that aside, this was troubling. "...where am I?"

The blonde sighed at the other girl. "Yes, well, you look like my brother, who is here." Her frown turned into a shark-like smile. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun when you two meet!"

Although, watching her...sister's face as she looked around killed Temari's good mood. "This place...is Hell."

"...considering that you attacked me on sight, forgive me if I do not share your enthusiasm for meeting...myself." Seriously. Two Shukaku hosts in one room? Pass. Er, this Gaara still has Shukaku, by the way.

But that statement makes her frown. "I would understand completely why I would come to be in hell, though I do not recall dying - but you... Well... My brother, at least, never did anything to deserve hell." Aside from being a shinobi, anyway.

She waved the other girl's statement off. "Eh, the other you is as crabby as you are. I doubt he'd want to attack you. Unless you pissed him off, I guess. Kankurou's not here, so it's kinda hard to guess what the other you will do."

Temari leaned in close. "This is Hell, Gaara. There are five Narutos here, and I think there are about fifteen to twenty different Uchiha. Trust me. And Shikamaru's here."

No, she wasn't smiling. "I didn't say I deserved Hell. It just is. I mean, what else do you call a place like that?"

After a long moment of considering what Temari had said, she concluded that it made little sense. "You babble like nii-sama, too," she stated blandly. Clearly, she didn't mean that rudely, but there it was. "In any case, meeting myself would hold little value to me. For what reason would I need to speak to someone whose thoughts lie so intrinsically close to my own?"

She immediately stepped back and away from the other when her...sister leaned in, disliking the closeness. "...Nara Shikamaru?" she asked, ignoring the comments on Uzumaki and Uchiha. "Why would it matter for him to be here?"

Temari looked at the other girl and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you are definitely Gaara. No sense of humour whatsoever. Where in the hell is Kankurou when you need him. He'd understand my pain."

At Gaara's reaction to Shikamaru, the blonde had to blink. "I guess it doesn't really matter for you personally. Since, well, I'm kinda some weird relative to you. But..." She bit her lip, suddenly unsure. "Are you saying that nothing ever happened between my counterpart and the Shikamaru where you're from?"

Just some blinking in response to that. What use did she have for a sense of humor, anyway? Instead of pointing that out, she chose to ignore that statement as well. "Nii-sama is not here?" Hm. So it was just this person-that-was-not-Tamaki. Troublesome.

"As far as I am aware, Tamaki-niisama and Nara-san are little more than passive acquaintances. They fought during the chuunin exams, and nii-sama complained for several weeks after about how he did not think his fight had been won properly." She shrugged. "He stopped when I threatened to clog his ears with sand."

"No, I was the only one of us here for a long time. But, now, you and the two male Gaaras are here. I do miss Kankurou though."

She listened to Gaara's statement with a frown. "Your male counterpart made me the ambassador to Konoha for the continued chunin exams. Nara Shikamaru was my liaison. We became...flirting acquaintances then."

Temari bit her bottom lip again. "So, our worlds are really different..."

She considered these statements for a long time. Aside from trying to wrap her mind around the fact that there were apparently two of her already here - she made a mental note to avoid herself whenever possible - there was also the absence of Kankurou to deal with, and that apparently Tamaki was male here.

It was rather a lot to take in. Then again, she wasn't (or hadn't been, apparently) Kazekage for nothing. She would adapt, the same way she always had.

But as to Nara - "I made Tamaki the ambassador to Konoha," she agreed, "But as far as I know he was unattached." He'd spent an interesting amouht of time with Haruno, though...

"Oh."

Well, this was pretty awkward.

"Okay, so, I'm not unattached anymore." She twisted her mouth in thought. "And I'm a girl, but so are you... Look, I have a house. If you want, you can come stay with me. I know this is odd for both of us, but, we're family. I don't know how much that means to you, but it means a lot to me."

Was it awkward? Gaara had no idea why. So her...sister had a boyfriend. Why was that a bad thing? "I see... I should like to meet him sometime, if that is permissible?" She was the youngest, but she still wanted to ensure that no one ever dared to threaten her family. Woman or not, Gaara could be scary.

But...

"I think I will find somewhere else." Her words and tone were blunt, but her expression softened. "Being family is...important, to me. But if you are in a relationship, it might not be proper, and... You have already said that there are other versions of myself there. I do not wish to meet them."

She hesitated, then reached out and very, very carefully settled a hand on Temari's shoulder. "We are...sisters. Sure we do not have to live together to spend time together...?"

"Well, even if you don't come live with m-us, you can visit, right? I don't think that you meeting the other versions of yourself would be so bad." She flashed her...sister a smile. "I'd kinda like to meet a male version of myself, to be honest. But, you might be right about the fact that there are so many people in the house might not work out for you. There are Uzumakis there too."

For a moment she only stared at her sister, expression completely unreadable. But eventually she smiled ever so faintly and bowed slightly. "I appreciate that, onee-sama." Actually, she really did. "It is nice to have family, even here."

She half-turned, gazing over the rooftops for a long moment, then slanted a glance at Temari. "...which Uzumakis?"

Temari laughed at Gaara's formality. "I don't know. Family's a mixed blessing, right?" No, she's not bitter, not at all.

"As far as the Uzumakis at my house, there are two versions of Naruto, although one goes by his dad's clan name, and Mito Uzumaki, wife of the Shodaime Hokage, evidently. Kushina-san brought her over to me. Kushina-san and Minato-sama are over at the Uchiha house to the west, along with a slew of Uchiha, Hyuuga and the rest of the other Narutos."

The knowledge that there were more than one Naruto around now was...somewhat baffling. "How is this village still standing...?" she wondered idly, thinking of the trouble that could erupt with a multitude of Narutos running around. She wasn't too concerned with Uchiha - there were plenty of them, as always.

She was still thinking about that laugh, and the way Temari had said that...

Because Gaara could hear that bitterness, and it confused her. "...I'm not certain what you mean by that statement," she said at last. "My family is extremely important to me - even when it is a sister, rather than a brother."

"The village is standing because the Narutos are distracted by girlfriends and their parents, thank kami for that!"

Leave it to Gaara, any Gaara, to pick up on the fact that Temari wasn't as happy as she wished she was. "I didn't mean it like, imouto-chan. My family will always be important to me. However, I've heard from somewhere that only family can hurt you enough to really matter. And it's true. I can only assume that Otou-sama was an actual parent to you." She gave the redhead a small, sad smile that vanished into an impassive mask. "Not so much for my reality."

Ah, girlfriends and parents - made sense.

After a moment of processing the familiarity in which Temari had just addressed her - neither Kankurou nor Tamaki had ever called her 'chan' before - she considered the implications of what her sister was not telling her.

Clearly, something had happened in her sister's reality that was extremely different from her own. "...Otou-san died protecting me from Akatsuki," she said at last. The memories still hurt, as did the guilt.

"If only...In my reality, Otou-sama was murdered by Orochimaru from Konoha on the way to the Leaf's village for the chunin exam during the joint venture with the Sound village to take it over...That was over three years ago. Although, he wasn't much of a father to myself or my two brothers. Count yourself lucky."

This was rather a lot to take in, actually. Gaara stared at her sister in mild shock. "...we never collaborated with Oto," she said at last, shaking her head. "And the chuunin exams... Nothing of note happened, aside from the fact that we were promoted."

Temari's reality had been extremely different indeed. Her gaze narrowed slightly at the blonde. "I am sorry that your father was not like mine... However, I am not certain I appreciate the way you are pushing your bitterness off on me, onee-sama."

She was glad that this Gaara hadn't suffered at the hands of their father. She was sure that their mother hadn't wanted that for any of them, ever. "I'm...relieved that you had a good parent, Gaara. And I'm not pushing anything off to you. It's still a touchy subject for myself and my brothers. I don't think we've even talked about Otou-sama's death outside of the political ramifications." She waved a hand and covers her eyes to gather her thoughts.

"Just...forget about it, okay?"

Her feathers were still a little ruffled, which was obvious from her expression but, slowly, she relaxed. "It isn't something I can...forget. But I accept that I misjudged your intentions with that statement." Slowly, carefully, she reached out to settle a hand on her sister's shoulder.

"Whatever else may have happened, we are family, and I would do anything to ensure you are safe and happy." That was her job as Kazekage, but also her prerogative as Temari's sister.

The feeling of Gaara—any Gaara—touching her like that was so out of character that Temari had to take a step back. "Yes, we are family, and I will protect you as I would my own Gaara at home. I hope that you know that."

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[Open] I have too many Gaara mused OTL

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